Man 'wakes up' from coma after ultrasound waves were beamed into his brain

A 25-year-old man in a coma may have had his recovery kickstarted after researchers 'excited' his brain tissue with ultrasound pulses.

The man was showing minimal signs of being conscious and understanding speech before the treatment, but a day after scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) beamed ultrasound waves into his brain, his responses improved measurably. Three days later he regained full consciousness and language comprehension.

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Researchers targeted the patient’s thalamus – the part of the brain that regulates consciousness – with low-intensity pulses of ultrasound energy. This excited the neutrons in his thalamus and, the researchers believe, triggered the man’s brain to 'wake up'.

"Until now, the only way to achieve this was a risky surgical procedure known as deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted directly inside the thalamus," said Martin Monti, the study’s lead author. "Our approach directly targets the thalamus but is noninvasive," he said.

The saucer-sized device beamed pulses of sonic energy into the patient's brain

Martin Monti/UCLA

The ultrasound device, which is about the same size as a coffee saucer, creates a small ball of sound waves that can be pointed at different parts of the brain to simulate tissue. In this study, researchers placed the device by the side of the man's head and activated it 10 times for 30 seconds each over a 10-minute period. The device is safe to use because it only emits a tiny amount of energy – less than is used in conventional ultrasound scans.

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"It is possible that we were just very lucky and happened to have stimulated the patient just as he was spontaneously recovering," Monti said, but if this technology was the cause of the man's recovery, it may lead to new ways to treat patients in comas. It could, the study suggests, be used as a low-cost way to 'wake up' patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state. Currently, Monti said, there is almost no effective treatment for those patients.

This is the first time the technique, called low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation, has been used to treat severe brain injury. The device was pioneered by another UCLA researcher, Alexander Bystritsky, who co-authored a study about the man’s condition in the journal Brain Stimulation.

This isn't the first time, however, that the effect of ultrasound waves on brain tissue has been investigated by researchers. In 2013, researchers at the University of Arizona found that by applying ultrasound waves to specific parts of the brain they were able to alter a patient’s mood. The research may one day lead to the development of non-drug based treatments for conditions such as depression.